Welcome to Snippet Sunday!

Where writers come together to share a few sentences (8-10) of their current project — whether it’s a recently released novel, a WIP (work in progress), or an older manuscript that’s being revived. Intended to hook readers, gather feedback and build an author’s fan base, Snippet Sunday is the FB group that does all three.

Still continuing on with my short paranormal story, Rivers of Black. I have decided I am not switching to something new in September but I am going to finish this out, then switch in October.

Picking up right where I left off in last week’s snippet for those that were screaming over the cliffhanger. My main character had been thinking about wanting to take her own life, but her fear of being found had stopped her. Now, she is out wandering the woods, looking for no place in particular that would be her place to sit in peace at last, coming across an old, scarred, and battered oak tree. Now that tree has shown it’s own desolation and deterioration to mother nature and my MC is spiraling into despair. She is just about to go through with the deed and take her own life, but now something is making her wary.

A bit of background on this story as well: This story is rather dark and depressing. It deals with a topic some people would be hesitant to read; which is self harm and suicide. I don’t sugarcoat this either, I write it raw on how someone in my character’s state feels. Just be forewarned with that. I hope it doesn’t deter you from reading, but I know others cannot deal reading these kinds of things. (There is really nothing bad to this snippet though, but it’s about to get good.)

(The following has been creatively punctuated to fit the ten sentence limit. And I mean very creatively punctuated this time.)

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No less than twenty feet away from me the forest had changed: A clear cut circle, probably ten feet in diameter held nothing by darkness. The sun was shining brightly, but not one ray of sunshine touched the circle of trees, the sky over it was as dark as night, and the trees looked gloomy and broken, bent at odd angles — some of them were felled and lay strewn across the forest floor like they were dropped from a great height. The grass and shrubbery were all dead and brown.

Nothing held any sign of life…or light.

Curious, but wary, I stood and walked towards the eerie, dark circle of trees. As I drew near I could feel the coldness that leaked out of the darkness. A weight felt as if it was resting on my chest the closer I got to the circle, goosebumps rose all over my bare skin, and alarm bells went off in my head telling me to stay away.

I reached the edge of the darkness in a matter of seconds, ignoring the warning bells in my head. Hesitantly I reached my hand towards the darkness, afraid that by touching it I might somehow explode or die on contact — my hand passed into the darkness without incident though, but immediately became cold and clammy.

I gasped at the sudden absence of warmth in my hand and quickly pulled my arm away, an eerie sense of Death’s fingers tracing down my spine.

Cover made by @_teenagers on Wattpad

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You know, the more and more I share this story for Sunday Snippets, the more I’m finding myself thinking I could make it even better if I ran through another edit of it. It’d only be my third or fourth edit…I think.

If you want to read the whole story, it is available to read on Wattpad! I love to hear any and all feedback on my work as well. Comments are greatly appreciated, as are the reads.

And if you’re looking for some other great snippets of fellow authors,

hop on over to Facebook and check out Sunday Snippets!